This is the true story of scientific child prodigy, and former baby genius, Ainan Celeste Cawley, written by his father. It is the true story, too, of his gifted brothers and of all the Cawley family.
I write also of child prodigy and genius in general: what it is, and how it is so often neglected in the modern world. As a society, we so often fail those we should most hope to see succeed: our gifted children and the gifted adults they become.
Site Copyright: Valentine Cawley, 2006 +

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Vikingdom: the reviews which aren't.

Vikingdom is a film by KRU studios of
Malaysia, starring Dominic Purcell in the lead role of Eirick, a Viking warrior
on a quest to, basically, save the world from the tyranny of Thor (who appears
to have gone somewhat mad).

Vikingdom should, by all accounts, be an
enjoyable film. Indeed, I played a role in it, as Warick, a Viking Warrior who
volunteers to join Eirick’s quest. Warick is a man who has not made his name,
in life and sees the quest as a means to do so. How that turns out, I will let you
find out, by watching it. My character accompanies Eirick throughout the entire
quest, to the end of the film, so it is quite a good supporting role, in terms
of “screen time”.

What I witnessed on the filming of
Vikingdom leads me to believe that it should turn out to be a pretty good film,
by Malaysian standards. I cannot say how polished the final product will be, by
international standards, however, because I have not seen the final cut – in fact,
I have not even seen a rough cut. The thing is: no-one has seen these things,
to date. Not even the director, Yusry Abdul Halim (a.k.a. Yusry Kru), will have
seen it, because the film is not yet finished – there is much
post-production work still to do, including music, and CGI and, perhaps, some
editing work.

Given that Vikingdom has not been seen by
anyone, I found it very curious indeed, to stumble on a site on the Internet, a
bit like IMDB, but not IMDB, that had a listing for Vikingdom, there. Guess
what? There were 25 votes/reviews of Vikingdom on this site. That is right, 25
people, who could not have seen the film, have voted on its merits. I was a bit
stunned by that. What was even more telling is that all these reviews/votes
were bad ones. Yet, what I had seen in the making of it, did not justify such
low votes at all. It was immediately very clear what was happening: enemies of
KRU Studios were voting down the film even before it had been released, or any
footage had been shown. People who had issues with KRU Studios were taking it
out on Vikingdom by attempting to spoil its filmic reputation even before it
had been completed, never mind released.

A lot of people put a lot of work into
Vikingdom. It does seem unfair that some people who have fallen out with KRU
Studios (and there are certainly such people around, for I know of several) should attempt to smear the efforts of those who have worked hard to
make Vikingdom the best film they can make.

Then again, the film review site should not
allow reviews or votes on a film, before that film has been released. Such
votes are meaningless since they cannot be genuine responses to a film that
no-one, not even the director, has seen in its final state.

I hope you go to see Vikingdom when it comes
out. The film is expected to be released internationally. It is a Viking saga
based on an ancient poem, the Necklace of the Brisings, I believe. It stars
Dominic Purcell (Prison Break), Natassia Malthe (Bloodrayne), Craig Fairbrass
(Eastenders), Conan Stevens (The Hobbit, Game of Thrones, Spartacus), Jon Foo (Tekken)
and many others, including someone called Valentine Cawley, in a decent
supporting role.

From what I have seen of the film, during
its making, this 3D film promises to be entertaining...so go along and take your kids! As
for reviews...it was fun to make, so it should be fun to watch. When you do get
a chance to see it, let me know your thoughts on it, below. Thanks. It should
be out sometime in 2013...when it has actually been finished!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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2 Comments:

Have you heard about Shouryya ray and his astounding achievement? he has supposedly solved a problem posed by newton over 300 years ago.I was wondering if you could maybe write a blog post seeing is he is certainly prodigious and this is very relevant :).Thank you!

This is the true story of scientific child prodigy, and former baby genius, Ainan Celeste Cawley, written by his father. It is the true story, too, of his gifted brothers and of all the Cawley family.
I write also of child prodigy and genius in general: what it is, and how it is so often neglected in the modern world. As a society, we so often fail those we should most hope to see succeed: our gifted children and the gifted adults they become.
Site Copyright: Valentine Cawley, 2006 +

About Me

As a child, I had many gifts...perhaps too many - and this leads to the characteristic problem many gifted children face: what to do, when there is so much you COULD do. I resolved the issue by doing each of them serially throughout my life. I had gifts in science, writing, art, music, acting and academia...and so my life has demonstrated each of these, at some time. However, in the modern world, those who specialize, and focus all their efforts on one thing, tend to win through. In the light of this I have written two books, which are being prepared for publication.
I was a child in a time when being gifted was not something people spoke about: it was not a widely recognized situation - at least not in my background. Nothing special was done therefore, to help. It is my wish that all in that position, these days, receive the support that is needed, to become the best they can be.
I have been an actor, a writer of two books, a government physicist, at age 17, the founding editor of an Arts magazine, at 22, and a performance artist whose work was covered by CNN (interviewer: Richard Blystone) and Reuters. However, my greatest achievement is to have fathered three sons.